This study investigates the relationship between contextual factors identified from contingency-based research, the adoption and extent of use of budgets, and business performance within the Australian primary healthcare setting.1 We focus on budgets because they are considered to be one of the main management control systems (MCS) in organisations, have been found to be the earliest MCS that a business adopts, and continue to receive significant attention in the research literature and in teaching material (e.g., Davila and Foster, 2005, Davila and Foster, 2007, Sandino, 2007)